New at aedes: Frederic Malle travel sprays.
Deal at luckyscent: get free shipping on orders of $75 or more with coupon code feb2011, good through 2/28. New items include Knize Two, Sec & Ten Golden Edition.
Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Jasminora ~ new fragrance
Guerlain will launch Jasminora, the newest addition to the Aqua Allegoria range, this Spring. The Aqua Allegoria line focuses on lighter perfumes for summer wear and is meant to “showcase nature”; the packaging was given an update in 2010…
Les Parfums de Rosine Secrets de Rose ~ perfume review
Secrets de Rose is a new fragrance from Les Parfums de Rosine — at least, fairly new, since Rosine’s releases usually travel to the United States at a leisurely pace. This Eau de Parfum, described as “a rose in black…mysterious and disturbing,” was created in 2009 by perfumer François Robert. It is an “amber floral” with top notes of plum, liquorice, rose essence, bitter orange, and saffron; heart notes of magnolia, ylang, rose absolute, white jasmine, and seeds of cumin; and base notes of sandalwood, Himalaya oak moss, amber resin, labdanum, and musk.
Les Parfums de Rosine has designated Secrets de Rose as the “seductress” of its fragrance family, but this scent really isn’t as heady or animalic as the promotional text would have us believe. Its opening note of bitter orange, accompanied by a breath of cumin and anise, is almost androgynous; there’s also a hint of something that I can’t place, except that it reads as “sour green” to my nose (perhaps galbanum?). Within a half hour, however, Secrets de Rose blooms into a feminine rose-saffron heart that’s smoothly blended and long lasting. A little saffron goes a long way in my personal preferences…
The Secret of Chanel No. 5 by Tilar Mazzeo ~ perfume books
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume reframes the story of Coco Chanel through a carefully filtered lens. Tracing the classic perfume to childhood smells and later personal olfactory experiences, Tilar Mazzeo shows that all roads in Coco Chanel’s life led to No. 5. The bottle design itself, even the perfume’s name, have deep connections to the designer’s past. Especially influential were the clean, austere aesthetics of the Aubazine Abbey, where the orphaned Gabrielle (a.k a. Coco) was raised. As a result of this clever spin, the book reads as a sort of symbiotic biography of the person and her perfume. Together they weather the storms of love, war, and business.
Throughout the narrative, Mazzeo weaves smooth transitions to clearly written lessons on the history of perfumery and ingredients, including a final chapter (“The End of Modern Perfumery”), on increased restrictions on materials imposed by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA, the perfume industry’s self-regulatory organization), a real threat to perfume formulation as we know it.
One of the book’s premises is that myths have been perpetuated about the perfume’s provenance and reception; even the quotes that preface the volume serve to set the record straight…
And the winner is…
...13Flowers, who takes all 4 bottles in our latest contest.